Colorado teen fights kidney setback after eating McDonald’s Quarter Pounders

A 15-year-ancient high school freshman is hospitalized with severe complications of food poisoning after eating McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers three times in the weeks before a deadly E. coli outbreak was detected.

Kamberlyn Bowler, of Grand Junction, Colorado, had to be flown 250 miles to a hospital near Denver in mid-October, where she received dialysis for 10 days in an urgent attempt to save her kidneys.

She is one at least 75 people sickened and 22 hospitalized in the outbreak tentatively traced to contaminated onions. In Mesa County, where Kamberlyn lives, 11 people have fallen ill and one person died. Federal health officials have said that slivered onions used on the burgers are a likely source of the outbreak.

The ordeal left Kamberlyn’s mother, Brittany Randall, worried about her daughter’s health and shaken at the concept that a burger could potentially factor so much damage.

“It’s pretty scary to recognize that we put so much belief and depend that we’re going to be eating something that’s well and for it to be broken,” said Randall.

She is moving to sue the quick-food chain after Kamberlyn was infected with the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria confirmed in the outbreak.

That bacteria produces a risky toxin that can factor a severe kidney disease complication known as hemolytic uremic syndrome, according to medical experts. Many children are hospitalized for weeks and some leave on to require kidney transplants, said Dr. Myda Khalid, a kidney specialist at Riley Hospital for Children in Indiana who is not involved in Kamberlyn’s worry.

“period is critical,” Khalid said. “We have to get through this window and we have to get through it with a lot of worry,” she said.

The state can be fatal, but most children eventually recover, she said.

Kamberlyn said she ate McDonald’s Quarter Pounders with cheese, extra pickles — and onions — three times between Sept. 27 and Oct. 8. She said the burgers were straightforward to grab during a football halftime and while watching a school softball game.

She started feeling ill in the days after and experienced fever, vomiting, diarrhea and hurtful stomach cramps.

“I couldn’t get out of bed,” she recalled. “I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t drink. I was surviving on Popsicles. I felt like crap.”

Randall, who works as a jail guard, has three older children and thought that her youthful daughter might just have the flu. But when Kamberlyn texted to declare she had blood in her stool and urine and was vomiting blood, Randall said she knew it was solemn.

On Oct. 11, Kamberlyn went to a hospital in Grand Junction. Doctors said she likely had a stomach bug. She was sent home, with instructions to remain hydrated. By Oct. 17, she was feeling no better and returned to the emergency room. That period, tests showed Kamberlyn had acute kidney setback, her mother said. She was flown to Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora, near Denver, where she remained on Tuesday.

Chris Kempczinski, McDonald’s chairman, president and CEO, apologized for the outbreak Tuesday on a conference call with investors.

“Nothing is more significant to us than the safety of our customers,” Kempczinksi said. “The recent spate of E. coli cases is deeply concerning, and hearing reports of how this has impacted our customers has been wrenching for us.”

Randall said her daughter’s upcoming health — and medical costs — are doubtful.

“The hospital bills are racking up,” she said. “And I’m a single mom and I just don’t recognize that I can necessarily afford all of what’s coming after all of this. And I don’t recognize what the upcoming looks like, either.”

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives back from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media throng. The AP is solely responsible for all content.